Customer Reviews

Pokemon 3 - The Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I'm a mom. I enjoy the warmth and humor shared between the Pokemon characters, and I admire the cartoon makers for their ingenuity. Most of all, I appreciate the values of friendship, kindness and responsibility that the Pokemon stories teach. There are no really bad guys in Pokemon movies-- just people or beings who aren't thinking clearly. And there are no hard feelings in the end. Everyone comes to an understanding. In this movie, little Molly has been motherless. Then she loses her father. So, feeling her world spinning out of control, she kidnaps a new mom and creates a powerful dad Pokemon and becomes extremely dominating. She is afraid of being hurt again, so she encapsulates her abode in spiky crystals. Excellent psychology! Yet in the end, she has to face reality and learn to cope as a lonely child, with the help of friends, of course. No fairy tale, happy-ever-after-with-the-prince endings. Pokemon movies give real lessons in living. I watched my child soaking in lessons about coping and also about having empathy for others.

I wasn't sure if this movie would be anywhere near as good as Revelaton Lugia, the second Japanese Pokémon movie. However, when I saw the original Japanese version in January, I knew that it was! Something previously unheard of in a Pokémon film was developed: a plot! In this movie, the characters all have clear, simple objectives and we know from the start what this film is going to be about. This doesn't mean that the movie doesn't have its moments of suspense. This structure simply allows the movie to progress more 'naturally', without some of the restrictive assumptions that were made in the first two films, such as having Pikachu in every other frame!

The Spell of the Unown tells the story of the legendary Pokémon Entei and the Unown, and how one little girl's unhappiness almost brought about disaster. The movie starts with the Molly's (the little girl) father disappearing. We also learn later that her mother has disappeared also. Feeling alone and sad, Molly discovers the box of Unown letters that had been found where her father was last seen. These letters (which are symbols of the Unown) summon forth a hoard of Unown, that seem to sense her unhappiness and try to make her wishes come true. Thus, the legendary Pokémon Entei is summoned, whom Molly believes to be her father. The Unown form a crystal tower around the mansion where Molly lives, which slowly begins to extend into the surrounding countryside. Also, Molly asks Entei to find her a mother. Once kidnapped, Ash begins his efforts to rescue her from Molly's 'crystal tower'.

I won't spoil the ending for you, but the message behind this movie is that of the bond between parents and their children. All of the Pokémon movies have themes (in Mewtwo Strikes Back we learned that senseless fighting was wrong - in the second movie the theme was that of believing in yourself), and this movie is the first to portray that message so clearly inside the film. One of the final scenes in the end credits is that of Molly being reunited with her real mother.

The 'Pichu and Pikachu' short was great! Perhaps not quite so good as the original 'Pikachu's Summer Vacation' but still great. For the first time, the original Japanese music was carried over from Japan and left in the US editon. I am all for this as the US music tends to be somewhat inappropriate for the shorts, always being far too kiddy.

As usual, the animation and CGI are up to their normal high standards, and the background music for the film was very good. Again, it was a shame that the movie score was made overly 'poppy', but this was balanced out by the retention of the original score for the short 'Pichu and Pikachu'. The music for the short was all carried over from the original Japanese production.

Overall, this movie is evidence that the US producers have listened to fans' requests to keep to the original storyline as much as possible. It's also nice to see that this film was completely Tracy free! This film is recommended to all ages, even those who may find the television series a little stodgy. Most parents won't have much say in it anyway...

~Sakurai Charizard

You all will LOVE this Movie! I must say, WB did a good job with the "less advertising hype" this time around, as to avoid UNWANTED critic nagging. Anyway, the third Pokemon film is VERY cool! Let's have a look:

The OVA, "Pikachu And Pichu" is in short, another OVA with Pikachu and the other Pokemon who are Trained by Ash-tachi being left alone for a little while again. Only this time, Two Pichu Brother's moon and anger Pikachu, so he gets angry and chases after them. After he catches up to them, this silly OVA goes for a non-stop comedy spree! See it for yourself in a manner of Days...

The main Movie, "The Spell Of The Unown" is about a Professor named Professor Spencer Hale, whom has a 5 year old Daughter whom he raises by himself (his wife passed away)and cares about very much. As a Pokemon Researcher, hearing about ancient Pokemon Hieroglyphics is excting news for him! But when these Hieroglyphics turn out to be the Ancient and mysterious Pokemon, the Unown, they send him into another dimension. Alone and sad, with only the servants in her mansion and no family, his daughter Molly crys and Prays.(in the Japanese version, the DIRECT translation of Her Prayer is: "Please my sweet days, return to me!") She hopes Her Parents will return, but instead the Unown come, and THEY help Her! The Unown have the ability to turn Human thoughts and emotions into reality! Her whole mansion is turned into a Crystal Tower, and the Unown's Spell has the Legendary Fire Dog Pokemon Entei, be Her new Father, in place of Her missing one. In the meantime, the area, (in the Japanese version, it is called "Greenfield") Ash just finishes a tied up match with another Trainer, and is surprised to see His Mother and Prof. Oak there on vacation! Molly then decides Delia will be the PERFECT new Mom, and Entei kidnaps Her for Molly. Now Ash and His Friends must all confront Molly's imigination, Entei Himself, and the Unown, if Ash wishes to get His Mother back, otherwise HE WILL be an orphan missing His Parents!

Oh, WB is cheap and is behind by a few Episodes, so here is some differences You will see in the Movie, (when it ACTUALLY takes place, 6 Eps from Today) compared to where WB is rught now:

Ash's Squirtle has left. Ash has a Totodile. Ash has a Shiny Noctowl. Misty's Poliwag evolved into Poliwhirl.

Oh, and one more thing, your NOT seeing things, Charizard returns!

This movie is GREAT!! Lots of people say the minimovies are not that great, but this one was probably the best Mini Movie of all the Pokemon movies. YES!!! Finally, a movie with Furret (a long, ferret-like Pokemon evolved from Sentret) and the Baby Pokemon like Pichu and Magby. It is much better than Pikachu's Vacation and on the same level as the mini movie Pikachu's Rescue Adventure in Pokemon 2000.

The main film is about a young girl and the Unown Pokemon. Her father is an archaeologist trying to discover ancient Pokemon. He finds the Unown, only to mysteriously disappear. His co-workers bring the news back to his little girl, along with a bunch of tiles with the Unown on them. When Molly (the girl) begins to play with them, she somehow summons the Unown, who grant her wishes by bringing her Entei as a father and Ash's mom as a mother. For some reason they create a crystalline palace for Entei, Molly, and Ash's mom to live in, perhaps making sure that Entei and Ash's mom do not disappear like Molly's real parents did (at Molly's wishing). Ash sets out to find his mom.

Overall, a great movie to go with the Johto series. And to those who have seen the episode about Ash's fiery friend, Charizard, and the valley of the Charizards - Charizard returns!

Still, though, I don't understand why Entei is included and not Raikou and especially Suicune. When I found out that Entei would be in the film, and after I watched the first Johto episode, I began to mistakenly put the mysterious glowing blue Pokemon in the first Johto episode - Suicune - with Entei, as a kind of "introduction" to the movie. After all, it is natural to group legendary Pokemon - Mew and Celebi, Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno, Lugia and Ho-oh -- and the three quick Neo Pokemon, Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. I was especially disappointed that water type Suicune was not in it, as Suicune is my favorite of the three (I like Water-types). It would have been interesting if Entei was her father and Suicune was her mother (Suicune has always had a rather feminine impression to me). But then, Ash's mother would have been fine and Ash probably would not have gotten involved at all. Oh well.

It's not as good as Pokemon 2000, and better than the first Pokemon movie, but somewhere in between. I don't know, but somehow I like the great Guardian of the Sea, Lugia, along with Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno, better than Entei and the Unown. Lugia - the star Pokemon in Pokemon 2000 - gives me a rather peace-making, strong, good impression, where in most of Pokemon 3, the star Pokemon (Entei) is almost half good, half bad. Unown, on the other hand, are more carelessly playful in my opinion, instead of villainous, and their playfulness accidentally makes big trouble for other Pokemon and people.

However, it all comes right in the end, and it turns out that Entei is not bad, it's just that he was summoned by the Unown to be Molly's father, and he wants to protect her more than anything else. That means Entei seems bad to Ash, who wants Molly to realize that he is not her father, and is good in Molly's thinking, who loves him like a father - indeed, she actually thinks he is her father.

How does it turn out? I'll leave that for you to find out! It's a great movie (though it is lacking in some ways, in ways that Pokemon 2000 did great in) and if I were you, I'd watch it!

I took my son to see Pokemon 3 And he loved it. I also found myself identifying with the characters. It was a cartoon that I didnt mind watching. I thought it was really inventive and creative and the characters were really well animated.

Wow, Pokemon can't stand to have a boring generic villain, can they? First Mewtwo, then Jirarudan (whatever his English name is, he's the most stereotypical, being the chess-playing supervillain type, but at least he wasn't trying to conquer the world), and now a little girl who just wants to be with her family! If this were a book, I could see reading it in English class for its themes on innocence and fantasy. Actually, I can see watching it in English class as an adaptation of such a book. So don't ever say Pokemon has no literary merit.

Team Rocket never gets to fill the role of villains in the movies, so I guess they are delegated to comic relief. But they hinted that they might possibly have a larger role in the next movie. (They have no respect for the "fourth wall," do they?)

Also, Charizard is back. I know he has lots of fans, so they definitely need to see this.

Let's face it, there is no middle ground when it comes to Pokemon, either one loves it, or loaths it. I love Pokemon, and for those of you that are wondering, yes, I am an adult.

Pokemon holds a degree of magic for those who take the time to understand what it is all about. Is Pokemon the best anime, no. Is it the worst? No. Pokemon is marketed towards children, yes, however, there are some very valuable lessons like friendship, loyalty, and caring that we all can take examples from.

Okay i suffered a lot with the first Pokemon film, but then, in the second film, i found it enjoyable, but this, this one it's truly very enjoyable,very mature story, great animation, quite very good music, but as many people say here the short stinks!, this film it's way funnier and way better than that digigarbage ot that Monster Rancher, but this is the kind of film that i will go to see to the cheap cinema or to the mall cinema, also let me tell you that the god of animation, Hayao Miyazaki, co directed and co writed the film, believe it or not, it's just that they didn't give him, credit, well, this along with Spy Kids it's one of the best children's films of the year.

I saw the movie when it came and when I saw the info on it I thought that this had had to have been the best movie they had made and it was. If you have kids that are Pokemon fans I think you should take them to see this movie. It starts with Pikachu and Pichu. Pichu are brothers who meet Pikachu and Pikachu gets in trouble with this Pokemon that I dont know who it was. Then they get onto the movie and that was so cool to show all those new Pokemon that are not in the show. They really showed what this Pokemon are really like when they are in the wild. A MUST SEE MOVIE FOR KIDS ALL AGES!!!

If you are an anime fan, you should buy this movie. I'm sure that many of you may think Pokemon is a childish, naive type of anime that's only for kids under age 10... however, Pokemon has more themes than just friendships even though it is not as sophisticated as Spirited Away...

Let me begin with graphics. I love the graphics in this anime, they are extremely detailed and varied in colours. There are scenes where 3D technologies are combined with 2D animations, they are rendered well, despite the fact that 2D is flat and 3D is more dimensional. Facial expressions are well reflected through characters' moods.

Next the sound. For North American anime fans, they know very well that almost every single anime is edited in some way so that the lip movements of characters fit the English voice acting. Well, you'd expect the same in Pokemon... As some of the earlier reviews point out, the Japanese version is longer in length and has more stuff to it; however, there is not a significant difference between the Eng and the Jap one. Personally I think the American voice actors and actresses for Pokemon have done a good job! They actually put their feelings and emotions into the anime to make it fit the overall atmosphere. (if you have seen Totoro's English version, that's what I call "bad voice acting"....) Some people hate the BGMs, because they are completely rewritten and recomposed. I love them, even they are miles away from the originals. The songs are cheerful and beautiful, "to know the unknown" for example.

Finally the story. Out of all 3 movies, this one is my favorite. The reason is because it teaches children and even adults lessons about love, loyalty, dreams, friendship, determination are intermixed in this film to make the story more complicated than most people expect. Every anime is childish in some way (except those blood lust ones), but every anime has its meanings and lessons about life incooperated inside... it's up to you to discover them.

Overall, Pokemon 3 is one of the best animes out there, it is not as childish as most people think, so get your hands on this great film before it becomes extinct in stores!!!